Where the data comes from
The sources
Pinsonar works with the public business listings of three map platforms: Yandex Maps, Google Maps and 2GIS. A listing is what anyone sees on the map without signing in: name, address, phones, website, categories, opening hours, rating, number of reviews, price list and photos; the app currently saves review texts from Yandex Maps only. Yandex Maps and Google Maps are used in any country, 2GIS in the countries it covers; see platform coverage.
Pinsonar is not affiliated with Yandex, Google or 2GIS and does not buy data from them.
Borders of countries, regions and cities
The territories you pick for "My market" use border data that is not collected from the map platforms. Countries and regions come from Natural Earth (public domain). Cities and districts come from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database Licence; the borders are loaded as a copy and refreshed from time to time, so a border can be a few months behind the map.
How it is collected
The server does not visit the map platforms. Listings are collected on your computer by the Pinsonar extension for Chrome, only for the jobs your account gives it: you choose the place and the search, the extension opens its own work tabs, reads the public listings and sends them to your account. What the extension reads and sends is described in data and security.
The same public listing can be collected by the extensions of several users who scanned the same business. Every user still sees only the businesses that came with their own reports.
How often it is updated
A listing is updated when it is collected again: when you scan the area again or open a deeper collection of the card. There is no background collection on our side, so a listing nobody scanned for a month is a month old. That is why the application shows the age of the data next to every business instead of hiding it.
How to read the freshness mark
| Mark | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Fresh | a platform showed the listing in the last 7 days |
| Aging | the newest observation is 7 to 30 days old |
| Stale | the newest observation is older than 30 days, or there is none |
The card of a business also lists every platform separately: when it last showed the listing and how many independent collectors saw the same name, address and phone in the last 90 days ("confirmed by"). The Excel export has a "Sources" sheet with the same dates.
When a platform has trouble
Map platforms change their pages. When the extension cannot read a platform properly for a while, the application shows "collection is temporarily delayed" for that platform, and the listings already collected stay as they were. A single unconfirmed signal is not shown. The current state is also on the status page.
What we do not collect
- Nothing behind a sign-in on the map platforms, and nothing from your accounts there.
- Not your browsing history, other tabs, cookies, passwords or forms.
- No listings outside the jobs your account gives the extension.
If something is wrong
A listing shows what the platform showed at the time of collection. If the data on the platform has changed, scan the place again. If a listing is attached to the wrong business, use the "Report a problem" button in the application or write to hello@pinsonar.com.
Try it on your own area.